To Boil Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the potatoes and soak them in cold water for 2-3 hours.
Boil and season
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the potatoes.
Boil the potatoes for 30 minutes.
Drain the water and sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the potatoes.
Gently shake the pot, cover it partially, and let the potatoes sit while you prepare dinner.
Serve
Serve the potatoes using a spoon.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide the starchy body of the dish, which becomes soft and fluffy when boiled.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the potatoes directly, adding flavour to their surface after draining.
The step that matters
Gently shake the pot and let the potatoes sit. Shaking after draining roughs up the outside of the potatoes, and resting them partially covered lets surface moisture evaporate while the interior stays hot, so they taste dry and seasoned rather than wet.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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